A LINGUACULTURAL STUDY OF BRITISH SLANG IN YOUTH SPEECH
Abstract
This paper presents a linguacultural analysis of British slang as employed in contemporary youth speech. Drawing on frameworks from sociolinguistics, cultural linguistics, and language contact theory, the study investigates the etymological origins, semantic mechanisms, phonological features, and socio-pragmatic functions of slang in British youth discourse. Special attention is given to the role of Multicultural London English (MLE), Jamaican Creole, African American Vernacular English (AAVE), and digital media in shaping and disseminating youth slang across regional and social boundaries. The paper argues that British youth slang constitutes not merely a subcultural vocabulary but a dynamic linguacultural system in which language, identity, and belonging are actively negotiated.
References
Agar, M. (1994). Language shock: Understanding the culture of conversation. William Morrow.
Blommaert, J., & Rampton, B. (2011). Language and superdiversity. Diversities, 13(2), 1–21.
Cheshire, J., Kerswill, P., Fox, S., & Torgersen, E. (2011). Contact, the feature pool and the speech community: The emergence of Multicultural London English. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 15(2), 151–196.
Coleman, J. (2012). The life of slang. Oxford University Press.
Drummond, R. (2018). Maybe it's a Mancunian thing: Exploring links between place, identity and language use. Language & Communication, 60, 32–43.
Green, J. (2010). Green's dictionary of slang. Chambers.
Kerswill, P. (2014). Multicultural London English: An overview. In J. Duarte & I. Gogolin (Eds.), Linguistic superdiversity in urban areas (pp. 45–65). John Benjamins.
Sharifian, F. (2011). Cultural conceptualisations and language. John Benjamins.
Tate, S. (2020). Black cultural aesthetics, politics of skin and the digital media. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(1), 44–60.
Vertovec, S. (2007). Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30(6), 1024–1054
